Thank you very much preacher Furo for that fire and brimstone pizza sermon! Let's face it, whole grain pizza is a legitimate category and a lot of restaurants offer some sort of whole grain pizza. Who knows, this could be the next big thing. I think we can make a pizza that is good tasting and healthy.

Bryan.....Not sure what you're looking for here but if you talk to a doctor or nutritionist and ask them if whole grains are more healthy than white flour, they can help you out. You can also just google "colon clogging white flour" or "is white flour bad for you" etc. Eat more whole grains, your colon will thank you for it! There's nothing more important than your good health.

Villa Roma

Was just looking for info on what refined white flour does to you and your colon. Found plenty online about it. I picked up a bag of KA whole wheat white flour today and let the experiments begin. I have the HM whole wheat white, HM Rye, and now the KA whole wheat white.

Was just looking for info on what refined white flour does to you and your colon. Found plenty online about it. I picked up a bag of KA whole wheat white flour today and let the experiments begin. I have the HM whole wheat white, HM Rye, and now the KA whole wheat white.

Good for you Bryan. Try to ease into whole the grain pizza scene gradually. You may want to try a 25% whole grain crust and then progress up until you find what's right for your taste, especially if you have children or a wife that doesn't share your enthusiasm for healthy eating.

I'm going to make 66% and 100% whole grain pizzas this weekend and I'll be sure to post pictures of my results. I'm going to have to see if I can get some KA white whole wheat flour to experiment with. I just don't like paying the high shipping costs KA charges. Ten pounds of flour cost $15 in shipping charges!

I personally think that the pizza choices are quite clear: you either eat less pizza of the “unhealthy” variety or you make the product healthier, as Villa Roma, charbo and others on this forum have done. In my case, I eat “bad” pizza in moderation and I alter the rest of my daily diet to balance things out. Yet, I applaud those who have taken the other path.

Peter

Pete-zza.....Well stated post as always. Looks like whole grain pizza is in the minority but maybe if people see that they can make at least a 50% crust that tastes good, they may want to give it a try.

I have found that most whole grain recipes are either very heavy and/or don't taste good. We're out to change that.

Earlier this year, I read a fascinating article ("Unhappy Meals") on the subject of diet, health and nutrition on the online NY Times. For those who are interested, it can be seen at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/magazine/28nutritionism.t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. Although I have been a student of nutrition all of my adult life and my diet is about 90% vegetarian, the article was a real eye opener for me (it’s actually quite scary) and gave me pause to think about everything I put into my mouth, including my beloved pizza which, in my case, falls within the remaining 10% of my diet.

While whole grains contain more micro-nutrients, they also contain more fat as well. What one is trying to achieve health-wise is really what should dictate the details of their diet. If you really want a wallop of micro-nutrients, you could just eat meat, as animal tissues store them in abundance. Given that many realize eating meat has its drawbacks, "eating less is better" can't always be fully accepted based on what is known through epigenetics. There are people living in poverty who easily fit the mold of "light" eaters because of circumstances beyond their control, but in poverty situations people are also often malnourished in the sense of being unhealthy, not just underweight. It may be the case for many people that because of genetic predisposition, what they've eaten in their past, or environmental conditions; no amount of "whole" foods can supply their micro-nutrient needs if the overall amount of food is low. Selective human dependance on naturally derived medicine is one example where even a "normal" amount of healthy food isn't enough, let alone a small amount.

These days I eat about 18 meals a week with 3 of them having a major meat component (chicken or fish), 4-6 of them being pizza (2-3 having a single meat topping), and the rest is a combination of whole and processed grain products (e.g. noodles, rice, flatbread, cereal) and vegetables (mostly legumes).

Try to ease into whole the grain pizza scene gradually. You may want to try a 25% whole grain crust and then progress up until you find what's right for your taste, especially if you have children or a wife that doesn't share your enthusiasm for healthy eating.

OK I went with a 50/50 for a trial run. I used Harvest King Bread Flour and KA whole wheat white, which is not white, but tan. No need to worry about getting nice color on the crust, it's like Prego, it's in there. As far as the grain of the wheat flour goes it looked like reg flour, it was ground very fine. Villa, I'm going the cold ferment route on my dough since that's what I always do. I see you do a same day/1 day dough. I'll post my results next week, Tues or Wed. I'll probably make another dough ball up tomorrow with the HK and use the HM whole wheat white for a comparrison of the 2 wheat flours.

Here's the results of my whole grain test pizzas. The first two are 66% whole grain (33% HM rye and 33% HM whole wheat, 33% GM Harvest King) and the last two are 100% whole wheat. For the 100% whole wheat pizzas I used GM whole wheat on the first and Hodgsons mills stone ground graham flour on the second.

Here is the Lehmann Pizza Today post (which I have edited slightly to improve readability):

You can make a good "wheat" pizza using your regular dough formula with half of the flour replaced with whole wheat flour. You will need to make a slight change to your procedure though to make a really good crust. In a separate container, put the whole wheat flour and 61% of the flour's weight as water into the container. Allow this to soak/hydrate for 45 to 60 minutes, then add to the mixing bowl along with the white flour and more water equal to 56% of the weight of the white flour. Now you can add the rest of the ingredients except for the oil and mix for two minutes, add the oil and mix for one more minute at low speed, then mix at medium speed for 8 to 10 minutes. The dough should feel a little tacky, that's normal. Take the dough to the bench and process as you would your normal, white pizza dough.

To make a "whole wheat" crust you must replace all of the white flour with whole wheat flour. Put it into a suitably large container, add water equal to 61% of the weight of whole wheat flour and stir together so it looks like oatmeal. Allow this to soak/hydrate for 45 to 60 minutes, then add to the mixing bowl. Now, add the rest of the ingredients except for the oil and mix for two minutes at low speed. Add the oil and mix one more minute at low speed, then mix 8 to 10 minutes at medium speed. The dough will feel tacky after mixing, this is normal. Scale and ball the dough as normal, then process as you would your white pizza dough. Wheat and whole wheat pizza doughs do not keep well much beyond 48 hours. For a little variety, you might want to substitute honey for any sugar that you might be using in your dough formula. I personally like to add about 3 to 4% honey to these formulas for the flavor that the honey provides. Wheat and whole wheat crusts will not be real crispy, but instead, they will be slightly crispy and little chewy.

You can buy whole wheat flour from any flour supplier, or if you want, you can also get it from your local supermarket in the baking supplies section.Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor